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Kevin De Bruyne reveals when he expects to return from injury
Kevin De Bruyne reveals when he expects to return from injury
Kevin De Bruyne reveals when he expects to be back from injury.
2023-11-27 19:59
Jude Bellingham breaks Cristiano Ronaldo record as Real Madrid see off Cadiz
Jude Bellingham breaks Cristiano Ronaldo record as Real Madrid see off Cadiz
Jude Bellingham broke a Real Madrid record held by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 3-0 win over Cadiz.
2023-11-27 19:17
Chelsea ready to test Napoli resolve over Victor Osimhen with January bid
Chelsea ready to test Napoli resolve over Victor Osimhen with January bid
Chelsea are prepared to pursue Napoli striker Victor Osimhen in the January transfer window.
2023-11-27 18:58
Bruno Fernandes & Erik ten Hag in agreement over Kobbie Mainoo verdict
Bruno Fernandes & Erik ten Hag in agreement over Kobbie Mainoo verdict
Bruno Fernandes & Erik ten Hag were both impressed by Kobbie Mainoo in Man Utd's 3-0 win over Everton.
2023-11-27 18:51
Why Aston Villa should be on Unai Emery’s list of top-four contenders
Why Aston Villa should be on Unai Emery’s list of top-four contenders
Unai Emery had his list prepared. “There are seven contenders to be in the top four,” he declared. “Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelsea.” His Aston Villa side were absent. “We are not a contender,” Emery smiled. Which was an interesting claim, given Villa are fourth. They sit two points behind leaders Arsenal, one point behind champions City, level with challengers Liverpool, ahead of the other four sides on Emery’s list. After all, Villa had just beaten one of them, coming from behind to hand Tottenham their third straight defeat and leapfrog Ange Postecoglou’s side. After 13 games and nine wins, they sit four points clear of sixth-placed Manchester United, five ahead of seventh-placed Newcastle, who put five past them on the opening weekend at St James’ Park. Then there is Chelsea in 10th, who are separated from Villa by not just 12 points, but Brighton and West Ham as well as the aforementioned clubs. Emery, though, was keen to avoid signing off a statement win from Villa with a statement of his own. "Of course we can get confidence when we are winning matches like here at Tottenham,” he said. “But still in my mind, it is 38 matches that we have to be consistent.” Perhaps Emery was not aware of the milestone he and Villa had just reached. Perhaps he was. Either way, Sunday’s 2-1 win in north London was the 38th time Emery had taken charge of Villa in the Premier League, the equivalent of a full season. Emery’s record stands at 24 wins, five draws and nine defeats, culminating in 77 points. Only Manchester City and Arsenal have taken more since the Spaniard was appointed last October and it is enough to put Villa third. Theoretically, had the season started then, Villa would have qualified for the Champions League this weekend. Discount Emery’s first few weeks at the helm and Villa’s record improves further still. In 2023, only Pep Guardiola’s treble winners have won more Premier League games than Villa’s 22. Since the turn of the year, Villa have comfortably outperformed Manchester United and Newcastle, who both finished in last season’s top four, taking 11 more points than Eddie Howe’s side, scoring 15 more goals than Erik ten Hag’s men. If it is consistency over a season that Emery wants, Villa have shown that over a 38-match spell where they have taken an average of over two points per game. Premier League table since Unai Emery took charge of Villa After 38 games 1. Man City – 86 points, +54 GD 2. Arsenal – 80 points, +42 GD 3. Aston Villa – 77 points, +27 GD 4. Liverpool – 76 points, +36 GD 5. Man Utd – 76 points, +16 GD 6. Newcastle – 70 points, + 38 GD 7. Brighton – 63 points, +19 GD 8. Tottenham – 60 points, +5 GD Villa’s latest victory came on the road and if that has perhaps been the only area where Emery’s team have not excelled, with nine wins from 19 away trips, then it has been off-set by their outstanding home form: Villa Park has staged 13 home wins in a row in the Premier League, their longest run since 1983. A 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest aside, when Villa were poor and deservedly beaten, Emery’s high defensive line has been their undoing on their travels. It certainly was in the results at Newcastle and Liverpool. It threatened to be at Spurs but Villa were let off the hook by the hosts’ wasteful finishing. It is not an approach that appears best suited to away fixtures, particularly against the big sides and those who Emery considers to be the real contenders for the top four. Yet it is a plan that Emery has refused to compromise on – one that has required Villa to be brave and bold, which in turn helps explain their position. While the win at Tottenham was eye-catching, Villa’s push has until this weekend been built by beating the sides in the bottom half of the table, where Emery’s team can be aggressive, play on the front foot and suffocate their opponents. Sunday’s win at Tottenham was not an example of it, but Villa have an ability to win games comfortably. They have scored at least three goals in each of their last six Premier League matches at Villa Park and in Ollie Watkins, they possess what Manchester United and Chelsea do not appear to have, which is a leading forward who can score 20-plus goals per season. Incidentally, Watkins’ winner at Tottenham was his 20th Premier League goal under Emery. There are signs that Villa can sustain the pace for another 38 games. Certainly, with Tottenham unable to field their starting midfield three or their first-choice centre-back partnership, and Newcastle hit by a similarly severe injury crisis, Villa’s squad also currently looks to be stronger than some of those who have been more vocal in declaring their top-four ambitions. And these are still heady days in Villa’s recent history, at a time when there isn’t expectation, given that when Steven Gerrard was sacked and Emery was appointed 13 months ago the club were only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference. Now, after 38 games, there is a case to be made Villa have been the third-best team in the country since Emery arrived. While a Villa Park double-header against Manchester City and Arsenal looms next week, it appears to be a more daunting task for Guardiola and Mikel Arteta than it does for Emery’s in-form side. Keep this up, and he will be unable to talk Villa down any longer. Read More Son Heung-min hurt by defeats but ‘very pleased’ with way Tottenham are playing Tottenham and Aston Villa’s clash of high lines reveals a new top-four contender Tottenham vs Aston Villa LIVE: Latest Premier League updates What Alejandro Garnacho needs to achieve Man Utd greatness Emotional Darren Anderton pays tribute to ‘second dad’ Terry Venables Bruno Fernandes talks up Alejandro Garnacho after stunning goal at Everton
2023-11-27 18:51
Football transfer rumours: Man Utd ready Muller move; Barcelona eye Thiago
Football transfer rumours: Man Utd ready Muller move; Barcelona eye Thiago
Monday's football transfer rumours include Man Utd and Thomas Muller, Barcelona potentially re-signing, Thiago Alcantara, Ivan Toney, Douglas Luiz & more.
2023-11-27 17:27
England wasted the brilliance of Terry Venables and were left to wonder what might have been
England wasted the brilliance of Terry Venables and were left to wonder what might have been
Terry Venables was the lost great England manager and, until Gareth Southgate, the last great England manager. The link between Alf Ramsey, for whom he briefly played, and Southgate, who he plucked from Aston Villa and turned into an assured international with seeming ease, Venables may have fashioned the best England team since 1966. And if that verdict comes from the slender evidence of perhaps two-and-a-half games of playing well on home soil – the second 45 minutes against Scotland, the rout of the Netherlands, the semi-final against Germany – Euro 96 will forever leave a generation with a sense of what might have been. From the wreckage of the doomed campaign to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, Venables seemed to inspire an English enlightenment. From the plodding dullness of long-ball football purveyed by limited players, he allied technical and tactical excellence with attacking intent and a willingness to embrace all the talents at his disposal. It may have been the only time in the last half-century when England were the finest team in a tournament; it is not jingoism to think that, had Germany been worse at penalties, Venables’ team would have beaten Czech Republic in the final. It ought to have been the start of an era; instead, it was an interlude. On Sunday, Venables died aged 80 after a long illness. He managed England for two-and-a-half of those years and it should have been more. If the FA’s reluctance to extend his deal before Euro 96 reflected a sense of disquiet about his business dealings – Venables ended up being banned from being a company director for seven years – it was a mistake. No one else took England to a semi-final for more than two decades; even when Southgate did, no one else brought such adept man-management and tactical nous. If Venables was England’s most charismatic manager, a throwback in that respect to Tommy Docherty, under whom he emerged at Chelsea, and Malcolm Allison, who gave him his first coaching job at Crystal Palace, he was years ahead of his time in other respects. Gary Neville recalled ostensibly playing right-back in three consecutive games at Euro 96, but actually occupying different positions in each. In an age of a lumpen 4-4-2, Venables could switch systems, adopt the Christmas tree or the back three, school the Dutch in Total Football. The managers England later imported at great expense, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, produced less sophisticated football than the boy from Dagenham. The tributes reflected his rare gifts. “The best, most innovative coach that I had the privilege and pleasure of playing for,” said Gary Lineker, who also played for Johan Cruyff. “The most technically gifted coach that I ever played under,” said Neville, who played 602 times for Sir Alex Ferguson. And yet the tragedy of Venables, for him as well as England, was that his eventual achievements placed him in the category of the very good and not the great. Perhaps only penalties kept him out of the pantheon: Southgate’s tame spot-kick in 1996, the four that – ludicrously – Barcelona contrived to miss while scoring none in the 1986 European Cup final shootout. And if there is an Anglocentric focus on the national team, it is worth noting that in the last seven decades, only one English manager has won either the French, German, Italian or Spanish league title: Venables, in his first season at Barcelona, when they had not been champions for a decade, when Diego Maradona had been sold and the man hired from QPR replaced him with Steve Archibald. They won La Liga by 10 points, topping the table from start to finish. He was a game away from a second stunning achievement, winning Barcelona’s maiden European Cup. Steaua Bucharest defended for 120 minutes in the final before what Venables subsequently described as “the worst penalty shootout you’ve ever seen”. Yet there is a picture after the semi-final of a teenager on Barcelona’s books gazing up adoringly at Venables. If a young Pep Guardiola was influenced by Venables, he was not alone. Yet a managerial career can be divided into two halves: before and after Euro 96. He enjoyed success everywhere in the first part of his coaching career, taking Palace to promotion and, briefly, top of the old Division 1, QPR to a fifth-place finish, Tottenham to third and the FA Cup, which he had also won as a Spurs player. But football sometimes seemed insufficient for a man of his ideas, energy and entrepreneurial spirit. Venables was author, crooner, nightclub owner. He had a sharp intellect, a belief in his own ability, but also a willingness to aim for the boardroom when he was at his best on the training pitch and in the dugout. In a way, Venables’ other interests made him suited to international management; the nature of them made the FA uncomfortable. And he left the job that suited him best. He went on to take Australia to the brink of the World Cup, denied only by away goals, and rescue Middlesbrough from relegation, but spells back at Palace, at Leeds and as assistant to Steve McClaren at England represented an underwhelming end to a coaching career that took him to the brink of history. There was, though, a fitting element to finishing with England. Venables played for his country at every level, from schoolboy to youth, amateur, under-23 and the full senior team. He was capped just twice by Ramsey; perhaps it did not help that sons of Dagenham were very different – Ramsey the social climber who took elocution lessons, Venables the brash, wisecracking showman. He was not to be a World Cup winner; he made the provisional 33-man squad for the 1966 tournament, but not the final 22. But the glimpse of glory as a manager was tantalising. Venables brought hope to English football, boosting its self-esteem, forging indelible memories, whether of Paul Gascoigne’s goal against Scotland or the 4-1 evisceration of the Netherlands. He left England – the players and the fans, anyway – wanting more. Nostalgia for Euro 96 is already a cottage industry and, as no Englishman has emerged with his managerial skillset since, there will be reasons to remember Terry Venables fondly for years to come. Read More The sporting weekend in pictures Former England boss Terry Venables remembered as an innovator and inspiration Terry Venables gives important advice to Southgate after Euro 96 in resurfaced clip Gareth Southgate pays tribute to ‘outstanding coach’ Terry Venables How Terry Venables brought football home in England’s greatest summer since 1966 England’s Euro 96 stars including Gary Lineker pay tribute to Terry Venables
2023-11-27 16:24
LAFC triumph 1-0 over Seattle Sounders to reach Western Conference final
LAFC triumph 1-0 over Seattle Sounders to reach Western Conference final
LAFC triumphed 1-0 over the Seattles Sounders at Lumen Field to clinch a spot in the Western Conference final.
2023-11-27 13:51
3 Bills to blame for devastating overtime loss to Eagles
3 Bills to blame for devastating overtime loss to Eagles
The Buffalo Bills lost another narrow one because of a handful of missed opportunities.
2023-11-27 13:25
5 breakout fantasy football stars to pick up for Week 13
5 breakout fantasy football stars to pick up for Week 13
As the bye-heavy Week 13 looms, these five pickups can help you find a way to a win in your fantasy football league.
2023-11-27 12:57
Wilfried Nancy hails Patrick Schulte after impressive showing vs Orlando City
Wilfried Nancy hails Patrick Schulte after impressive showing vs Orlando City
The Crew boss was full of praise for his shot-stopper.
2023-11-27 12:52
Marcus Smart Screamed At Teammates During a Timeout
Marcus Smart Screamed At Teammates During a Timeout
Marcus Smart yelled at his Grizzlies teammates during a timeout.
2023-11-27 12:51
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